photography

My photography skills fall between Good Camera <—> Lucky Shot. I’m not saying these are award-winning, just favs that bring the reader to interesting stories (in my opinion). Larry and I travel quite a bit, and exotic destinations can produce killer shots. But beauties happen right here at home, too. Enjoy!

A few months back, Larry and I hit the LA Travel Show. It’s a kind of convention for John Q. Public to spend the day scouring hundreds of booths for places to visit and things to buy. Larry and I travel; always good to see what’s out there. If you have a dollar to spend […]

When you travel 30+ hours to get home from Southern Africa, jet lag can be a whopper. But a great use of time at 4 AM is photo management. African light is naturally stunning. Morning light differed from mid-day, and sundown yet again different. It was easy for my little Canon G-10 to document how […]

Long, long time ago, I took a photography course. And promptly forgot everything again, evolving into a lucky photographer. I hung onto my trusty Canon Powershot S410 as long as possible because, I figured, my vacation shots from numerous visits to Asia, Africa, Europe, Antarctica were great. Uh, no they weren’t, Patti, the places were […]

My recent visit with stylist Denise Vivaldi of Food Fanatics at her food shoot was eye-opening, but I felt the need to leave with some hope for my own artistic capabilities. So, I picked the team’s brains as to what they consider “easy” foods to shoot. According to Denise and team members Cindy Flannigan, Jen […]

When pressed, many food bloggers will confess: we’ve set a plate of our delicious upcoming dinner in front of the camera, and all our shots turn out looking like doggy “stuff” (you visualize). Food stylists are magicians who can literally make anything perform for a camera. They have an arsenal of tools – this kit, […]

Hi, are you a food blogger, too? We know the drill: in our studios, there are no food stylists, prop stylists, lighting assistants or photographers. Heck, I have no studio. The stylist is ME, the photographer is ME. And unlike the food for commercial photography, the food blogger’s shoot is destined for… dinner! Recently, I […]

In a professional studio, when you work with a food stylist, you can pick up great tricks to make foods look glorious. I’ve always loved studio work, spending days hanging out with creative people (me, faking the appearance that I was in charge of something). Stylists have carloads of kits with every craft item and […]